Carson, Rae: The Crown of Embers
The Crown of Embers (2012)
Written by: Rae Carson
Genre: YA/Epic Fantasy
Pages: 410 (Hardcover)
Series: Book Two (Fire & Thorns Trilogy)
Why I Read It: I rather surprisingly fell in love with Rae Carson's debut, The Girl of Fire and Thorns last year, so much so that I had to get the sequel ASAP. And once it came in, it moved to the top of the TBR, just waiting for the perfect moment to read it. Once I found that moment, I pounced on it, ready to savor Elisa's next adventure and to admire Carson's fascinating fantasy world.
The premise: ganked from BN.com: She does not know what awaits her at the enemy's gate.
Elisa is a hero.
She led her people to victory over a terrifying, sorcerous army. Her place as the country's ruler should be secure. But it isn't.
Her enemies come at her like ghosts in a dream, from foreign realms and even from within her own court. And her destiny as the chosen one has not yet been fulfilled.
To conquer the power she bears, once and for all, Elisa must follow a trail of long-forgotten-and forbidden-clues, from the deep, hidden catacombs of her own city to the treacherous seas. With her go a one-eyed spy, a traitor, and the man whom-despite everything-she is falling in love with.
If she's lucky, she will return from this journey. But there will be a cost.
Spoilers, yay or nay?: Vague-ish spoilers, probably enough to scare spoiler-phobes, so if you want to remain surprised by this installment, please skip to "My Rating" and you'll be in good shape.
So I didn't take a whole lot of notes for this one. Frankly, I'm a little tired of taking notes, so I'm doing it less and less unless the book just really gives me something to say. But I want to make a prediction based on a few key passages of this book.
The prediction: this is science fantasy, not epic fantasy. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if that science fantasy turns into straight up science fiction, but that depends on developments.
Why do I think that?
Pages 33-34:
The cobblestones beneath my feet are worn smooth, for Brisadulce was built almost two thousand years ago, after God scooped up our ancestors from the dying world with his righteous right hand and deposited them onto this one.
Page 371:
We round a bend and find another pile, but this one is as tall as a tree and square shaped, with arched openings for windows. A ruined building. I look around in awe at the other piles. Ruins, all of them. This was once a city of stone, its shape now worn down by sun and wind and tree roots and time.
"This must be centuries old," I breathe.
"Several millennia," Storm says, and there is a quiet sadness in his voice I've never heard before.
I regard him sharply. "That's impossible. God brought people to this world--"
"Yes, yes, he rescued you from the dying world with his righteous right hand less than two thousand years ago. I've hear you tell it." The anger in his voice was palpable. "Little queen, don't you realize? We Inviernos have always been here."
I don't know if the first book had such clues, and I simply missed them. But this year has been the year of reading books that are seemingly fantasy that end up being some thing very science fictional instead. Most notably, Sharon Shinn's Jovah's Angel comes to mind, particularly after the first passage I quoted, because that's the first thing I thought of when I read it. Getting this confirmation from Storm was like…. interesting. I'm very curious to see how this develops, to learn if I'm only seeing what I want to, or if I'm right but perhaps Carson has some unexpected twist. And I'd be lying if I said the development doesn't excite me. I'm really looking forward to the third book, partially for this development.
Yet, I've read Shinn. The relationship between religion and science and how these two series seem to be treating it is quite similar. Oh, shush, I'm not accusing anyone of plagiarism or any such nonsense. More to the point, it's kind of genius: Carson's target audience (this is YA, after all) likely won't have read Shinn's series, so whatever develops, it'll be new, fascinating, and very original, which is great. Because then you can say, "If you liked THIS, please try THIS," and get them reading some adult SF/F.
But it's a weird little parallel in my brain, probably because it's not been THAT long ago that I read Jovah's Angel.
At any rate, the other major development was Hector. I was rooting for Hector and Elisa by the end of book one, and it was interesting to watch them deny and dance around their feelings. Of course, there are a lot of misunderstandings, some of which perpetuated by Ximena. I was glad to see her get the axe, to be honest. Elisa is always much stronger when that character isn't around, and Ximena's manipulations ticked me off. Consider: if Alodia is queen, and Hector is a suitable match for her, then why on Earth would he be any less than a suitable match for Elisa, who is also queen, and who is deeply in love with him?
I was glad to see Elisa's solution, one that both satisfied her political needs and emotional ones. I doubt Hector will be angry, as she fears, though if he survives (and given Carson's track record, there's no guarantee), he may not believe her affections are genuine, and if that's the case, I really hope we don't dwell on that for long. I really like those two together. They complement each other quite well.
But my enjoyment of this book doesn't lie in its romance. I loved seeing the moments when Elisa really takes charge and acts like a queen. It always catches me by surprise, because I remember the girl we started with from page one in The Girl of Fire and Thorns. It's delightful to see her growing and learning, and I love just how smart she is. Not smart in everything, of course. She is human and therefore fallible, but she's learning. She's growing. She's a character to admire. And if I had a teen daughter, I would not hesitate to let her read these books, and that's all due to Elisa.
My Rating: Good Read
While I wasn't glued to the pages the same way as I was with The Girl of Fire and Thorns, I utterly enjoyed my reading of this book. It's good to see that Elisa isn't just some all-powerful ruler who can make everything work out the way she wants at a mere whim. She has to work for it, and sometimes, she screws up. She's a great character to read about, however, and I love this world that's developing and getting more and more complex. Wonderful new characters were introduced in this installment, and Carson also sets us up quite nicely for the third and final book in the trilogy, The Bitter Kingdom. Is it 2013 yet? No? Well, that'll give fans of the first book plenty of time to catch up, and if you're a fan of Hector, believe me when I say, you'll definitely want to catch up. :)
Cover Commentary: At least it's consistent with the first cover. I like how the Godstone plays a prominent part, and we get a little bit of jungle, which is appropriate for the story. Not much else to say about this one, just that I'm SUPER GLAD it matches the first. Now let's hope they don't screw up the third. :)
Next up: Gunmetal Magic by Ilona Andrews